Wednesday, 12 September 2012

We will be holding our second Knowledge Exchange Seminar, hosted at the Oxford Internet Institute on September 26th.

This half-day session (12.30-4.30pm) will focus exclusively on using quantitative methods in social media research, please see the programme below for more details. We have very limited spaces for this event so places will be allocated on a first-come first-served basis and preference will be given to participants willing to contribute a case study or example from their own experience to one of the sessions.

If you would like to attend the seminar please email: events@oii.ox.ac.uk confirming your contact details (email and phone number). We would hope attendees are able to share personal experiences using quantitative methods in social media. Although the Seminar is free, space is limited; if you do not attend after reserving a place we will make an administrative charge to cover the costs of catering and administration. Please only reserve a space if you intend to attend.

Our Knowledge Exchange Seminars provide an opportunity for researchers, practitioners and policy-makers to share ideas. Each of the four sessions will be interactive, with lots of opportunity for open discussion. You can volunteer to:

Lead a themed session – by preparing a 5 minute introduction on one of the seminar themes, which poses key questions for the group to discuss. You will co-facilitate the following discussion with one of the NSMNSS team and write a summary blog post after the event.Tell us about your experiences by providing a descriptive case study– a short 2-3 minute description of your experience using quantitative methods in social media research. Please identify which of the suggested themes in the programme you think your example would fit under and we will ask you to share this during the relevant session.

If you would like to contribute to the event on 26th September please reply to

A video of the introductions to each theme will be available shortly afterwards, if you are unable to join us please share your thoughts and insights with tweets and comments on our Methodspace forum. You can join in network activities there at any time: http://www.natcen.ac.uk/nsmnss/

We will also be hosting a virtual Blackboard session for international participants later in September. More details to follow.

Social media data can often be analysed using visual methods. How can we visualise data collected by social media? How does visualisation relate to statistical analysis? What are the payoffs from using visualisations?

1.50pm - Session 2

Populations and Sampling:What is the “population” on social media platforms? How do platforms differ in population characteristics? How can we select cases or sample on social media?

2.40pm Break

3.00pm - Session 3 Big Data:

Social media research can involve very large datasets. What do we gain and lose with big data? How is big data changing the way we do research?

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About NSMNSS

Should social science researchers embrace social media and, if we do, what are the implications for our methods and practice? This network, led by NatCen Social Research and SAGE along with our affiliate supporters (see below) is for people using or seeking to use social media in social science research who want to explore the implications of that question.